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St. Augustine photographer specializing in families, children, and seniors.

Saint Augustine Family Photographer | Beekeeping 101

Exciting news y'all! I AM OFFICIALLY A BEEKEEPER! I am beyond excited for this adventure! I am nervous that I am going to kill them accidentally or that something will kill them. They recommend not checking the hive super often so the most I can do is watch from the outside. I imagine this is what it's like when you have a kid. You get super worried about them and wonder if you're doing the right thing. It is expected that I will have some honey to sell by the end of June! I will be sure to keep you posted! Also you can follow my beekeeping adventures on Instagram! Follow me @thenekterco

Here are some cool bee facts:

When the weather gets colder, bees can live for 9 months. But in the summer, they rarely last longer than six weeks. They literally work themselves to death.

Drones are male bees, they have no pollen basket to collect pollen, they have no stinger and basically exist to mate with the queen. They are kicked out of the hive when winter comes because they are a drain on hive resources.

Bees can only sting you once. Their stinger gets stuck in your skin and they cant remove it without it ripping out of their body. They give up their lives to sting, so they are not super aggressive unless they need to be.

"They can help us find serial killers. Serial killers behave like bees. They commit their crimes close to home, but far away enough that the neighbors don’t get suspicious. Similarly, bees collect pollen near their hive, but far enough that predators can’t find the hive. To understand how this “buffer zone” works, scientists studied bee behavior and wrote up a few algorithms. Their findings improved computer models police use to find felons." -Mental Floss

"Americans consume about 285 million pounds of honey each year. On top of that, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that honeybees pollinate 80 percent of the country’s insect crops—meaning bees pollinate over $20 billion worth of crops each year." - Mental Floss